By Brian Kelly, a father of two teenage girls

It’s the “wine o’clock!” memes that seem to be missing this time around.  

Last year’s lockdown (you remember – the fun one, the novel one, Anzac Day in the driveway etc) arrived with a flurry of artworks highlighting the joys of keeping a potentially deadly disease at bay, not going anywhere interesting AND having to suddenly be your kids’ teacher(s).

There we were, asking if 10am was too early to fetch gin from the freezer, as if almost daring each other. Who would crack first?

But now ... eerily quiet on that front. Maybe it’s just my newsfeed, but we’ve either gone cold turkey, hit the back of the booze cabinet or passed out. Which is a worry; when the laughs dry up, tears appear. 

Supervising the schooling of one’s offspring (NOT home-schooling, which appears to be a whole other extension of the very hot place, and hats off to those who do it all the time) can actually be very self-educational. Why is Year 7 algebra suddenly beyond me? When did I forget what the “subjunctive pluperfect” tense was ... and did I ever know?  

As my own teen queens are largely self-functional (self-censorial might be nice on occasion, ladies), it’s parents of the younger tribe that I feel for most. People are seriously stretched. Stats speak loudly (a 27 per cent rise in calls to Lifeline, 40 per cent of parents ‘actively’ caring for children during work hours), but the one that matters most is that 100 per cent of us are Over It. 

Distinctly not helping are the wide-ranging views that it’s all so much easier/harder this time. You’ll be aggrieved for single parents trying to keep 16 balls in the air one minute, green with envy the next at the 11-year-olds who seem to be making an early start on their HSC as their parents punch out another batch of award-winning sourdough.  

There’s no doubt teachers are suffering, too, but some have gone out of their way to keep it fun. In at least one Illawarra primary school, three kinder teachers managed to dispatch learning packs to students’ homes, complete with a note that said “your work colours our day like a packet of SKITTLES”, with a pack of that kaleidoscopic confectionery attached. The mum sharing this on social media – who contends with chronic illness and has five kids at school “plus a 4-year-old rascal” to corral – was duly impressed.  

Then there was the dad who said his daughter had that day studied physics – along with “force, momentum, acceleration and resistance ... mostly on a scooter”. All followed by photos of a nasty knee scrape. File under life lessons, perhaps. 

Meantime, we should not underestimate the power of our abilities to brighten someone’s day through gestures grand and humble. US president Ulysses Grant (keen on a drink himself, coincidentally) said: “The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most.” 

And while we inhabit a part of the world where we are free to wander into the great outdoors and witness a whale mumma and her bub (thank you, McCauley’s Beach), there is surely enough hope to justify looking forward to better times and the sound of clinking glasses once more.